Sir Harry Vane 159 



carefully examines this charge, and, we think, suc- 

 cessfully refutes it. It was neither the first nor 

 the last contract on record which has afterward 

 come to receive conflicting interpretations from the 

 two parties without any tricksome intent on either 

 side. " The Scots," says Mr. Hosmer, " under- 

 stood that England assumed their own narrow 

 Presbyterianism, with its complete intolerance ; 

 Vane and his friends gave the instrument a differ- 

 ent interpretation, which they honestly felt it would 

 bear." The amendments which Vane partly suc- 

 ceeded in engrafting upon the Scottish proposals 

 at Edinburgh are sufficient evidence of his straight- 

 forwardness. It was plain enough that, in making 

 a league to overcome the King, the Scots wanted 

 one thing, while the English wanted another. 

 Vane did not hide this fact ; to have emphasized 

 it would have been to forfeit all claim to diplo- 

 matic tact. His part in the memorable negotia- 

 tion is tersely summed up by Clarendon : " Sir 

 Harry Vane was one of the commissioners, and 

 therefore the others need not be named, since he 

 was all in any business where others were joined 

 with him." In the Committee of Both Kingdoms 

 which the league created he was equally effective, 

 and it was mainly through his persistent dexterity 

 that the committee acquired the control of military 



